Navy Drone test flight Today May 14, 2013

The Navy launched a prototype drone aircraft off the carrier George Bush today, an event almost universally acknowledged as a significant milestone toward drones taking a place at the heart of naval aviation.

The Northrop Grumman X-47B batwing craft was launched by catapult from the deck of George H.W. Bush off the coast of Virginia at 11:18 a.m. Eastern time.

It practiced several low approaches to the carrier and then flew across the Chesapeake Bay to land at Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Maryland after a 65-minute flight, the Navy reported. SOURCEwww.utsandiego.com... I can't help but wonder how many U.F.O. sightings this will cause? IMO we are getting geared up and ready to go...

reply to post by shells4u


I'm glad they are finally talking about this publicly. Level 1 and level 2 drones have been being launched for years from carriers. Seeing a level 3 launch publicly is a big deal and bit of showing off for us here in the US.

I was gonna start but found this one already up. So I'll post here instead.

US Navy launches unmanned drone from carrier

An X-47B pilot-less drone combat aircraft is launched for the first time off an aircraft carrier, the USS George H. W. Bush, in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Virginia, May 14, 2013. The US Navy made aviation history on Tuesday by catapulting an unmanned jet off an aircraft carrier for the first time, testing a long-range, stealthy, bat-winged plane that represents a jump forward in drone technology.

Now no place in the world is safe from our drones. If we learned anything about drone warfare we all should be shaking in our boots.

I happen to think unmanned warfare is the way to go and its certainly going to be the future.

Why send in humans if you don't have too?

Now if we could just get them smart enough to fly themselves we'd be set.

reply to post by Hopechest


Amen to that. I would have given my right leg to save as many as American lives as this has the potential to.

We need a ground model that works well though. TALON and SWORDS didn't work so hot.

Wait til ya'll see our next project MAARS and the new XATAC. You can info on one but not the other yet.

Drones might have a centralized control center so I wonder if the Navy drones
are controlled from a land base and if from a common control center.
Like with Army or Air Force. Perhaps we have a Drone Force now.
Drone stories always make it to the TV and papers.

Automaton drones are the big fear that they eventually patrol the globe without
human control. Yeah I've been watching Unsealed Files or just normal news
paper and TV editorials have these concerns of fear to attract readers.

Zapping the thugs in the midst of perpetrating a mugging must be the best
any of the worlds police forces could hope for.